Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Ottawa diocese repeatedly warned about local clergy's most notorious abuser

Ottawa diocese repeatedly warned about local clergy's most notorious abuser

Andrew Duffy, Ottawa Citizen
May 18, 2016

The Archdiocese of Ottawa continues to pay for the many sins of Rev. Dale Crampton.

Court documents reveal that the diocese has paid $741,783.44 in compensation to 10 of Crampton’s victims, who were sexually abused by the Catholic priest between 1963 and 1982.

More lawsuits are before the courts. The victims in those cases are seeking $3.7 million.

In total, the diocese now knows of at least 17 people who say they were victimized by the priest as children.

Through interviews and court documents, the Citizen has learned that members of the Ottawa clergy were warned at least seven times about Crampton’s sexual misconduct, beginning in 1965....

Crampton is the most notorious perpetrator in Ottawa’s clergy sexual abuse scandal, a pedophile and alcoholic who has cost the diocese and its insurance companies more money than any other priest....

At least four priests were told about Crampton’s abuse. What’s more, two complainants said they approached senior diocesan officials with allegations of abuse between 1980 and 1986....

“The archdiocese knew. They knew in the ’60s,” charged C.B., a retired educator. “A lot of other people could have been saved, and not subjected to abuse as I was, and more serious kinds of abuse … He was just getting started with me.”....

The diocese has publicly apologized to Crampton’s victims, but it has never admitted mistakes in how it dealt with the priest.

It has, however, changed the way it manages allegations of sexual abuse against Ottawa clergy.

In 2011, the Archdiocese of Ottawa issued a protocol that requires all clergy members and church employees to report any allegation of child sexual abuse to the Office of the Archbishop and to the Children’s Aid Society....

Lawyer Robert Talach, who has represented 10 of Crampton’s victims in lawsuits against the diocese, said that attitude is at the heart of the clergy sex abuse scandal.

The church, he said, operated behind “an institutional veil of secrecy” designed to protect its reputation, even at the expense of children’s safety.

It is why, Talach said, that he’s not surprised the Archdiocese of Ottawa was warned seven times about Crampton.

“It’s not unusual because what usually triggers more action is some kind of spectre of public knowledge,” he said.

More lawsuits are pending against Crampton and the diocese....

In 1974, he became one of the first two priests ever elected to the Ottawa Catholic School Board. Crampton collected more votes than any other trustee in that election.

The other priest elected that year was Rev. Kenneth Keeler, who would later plead guilty to sexually abusing three boys in the 1970s and 1980s.